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Marlborough Indian Plantation
In about 1686, many residents of Marlborough signed several key legal agreements to contract the transfer of title of large piece of indian land known as the Indian Plantation to the townsfolk. Ten Indians also signed it. Today this land makes up a large part of the town of Marlborough MA. Ockoocangasett Praying Indians This community was founded on a indian settlement known as Ockoocangasett, one of several Praying Indian Towns in the region, later known as Marlborough Indian Plantation. The town consisted of local indians who had converted to Christianity and then petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for protection from other warring indian tribes. Marlborough was known as one of seven “Praying Indian Towns”, that is, a settlement converted to Christianity by Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, a remarkable man who translated the Bible into the Algonquin tongue and then educated some Indians to understand English and to read in their own language to uneducated Indians from his translations. It was this same Rev. Eliot who in 1650 secured from the General Court an order reserving their lands for the Indians in order to protect them from any encroachment by the white settlers. On October 28, 1646, in Nonantum (now Newton), Reverend Eliot gave his first sermon to Native Americans in their Massachusett language. This happened in the wigwam of Waban, the first convert of his tribe. Waban later offered his son to be taught the English ways and served as an interpreter.2 Eliot translated the Bible into the Massachusett language and published it in 1663 as Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God. By 1675 20% of New England's Natives lived in Praying Towns. Christian Indian Towns were eventually located throughout Eastern and Central Massachusetts. They included: # Littleton (Nashoba), # Lowell (Wamesit, initially incorporated as part of Chelmsford), # Grafton (Hassanamessit), # Marlborough (Okommakamesit), # Hopkinton (Makunkokoag), # Canton (Punkapoag), # Mendon-Uxbridge (Wacentug), and # Natick. Today only Natick retains its original name. Praying Indian Towns started by Eliot extended into Connecticut and included Wabaquasset (Senexet, Wabiquisset), six miles west of the Quinebaug River in present-day Woodstock, the largest of the three northeastern Connecticut praying towns. See also : Praying Indian Towns - Wikipedia 1656 John Howe Cabin John Howe (1620-1680), in 1656 was a fur trader who built a house at the intersection of two Indian trails, Nashua Trail and Connecticut path, next to this settlement. He could speak the language of the Algonquian Indians though the local tribe referred to themselves as the Pennacooks. The settlers were welcomed by the Indians because they protected them from other tribes they were at war with. In the 1650s, several families left the nearby town of Sudbury MA, 18 miles west of Boston, to start a new town. The village was named after Marlborough MA, the market town in Wiltshire, England. It was first settled in 1657 by 14 men led by Edmund Rice, John Ruddock and John Howe; in 1656 Rice and his colleagues petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to create the town of Marlborough and it was officially incorporated in 1660. It seems that John Howe (1620-1680) was the first white inhabitant who settled in the town. He probably came to the place as early as 1657 or '58, and built himself a cabin a little east of the Indian planting field, about one-third of a mile north-easterly of Spring Hill Meeting-House, where the late Edward Rice resided. Though his habitation was in the immediate vicinity of the native tribe of Indians, he succeeded in securing not only their friendship, but their entire confidence and esteem. This place was in possession of his descendants for several generations. Land Title Dispute Land title confusion originates to 03 May 1654, when the General Court in Boston first granted land title of area to the indians to form a town called Ockoocangasett in an area about 8 miles west of Sudbury MA. This area would be referred to as the Indian Plantation. Later on 14 May 1656, this same court granted the land title to the 16 English citizens of Sudbury for the establishment Marlborough Plantation, but unfortunately that land grant overlapped the Indian plantation. ' The land of the Indian Plantation (6,000 acres) include the northeasterly corner of the present day township of Marlborough, including the hill in back of the old meeting-house Common, as well as the Common itself. The English plantation (29,419 acres) was situated to the west and south of this and thru further grants would essentially surround the Indian Plantation. It will be noted that many of the early New England towns were built in open meadows, where the indians had burned down woodstands to deprive game of hiding places. This is evidenced that these areas were subsequently quite prone to growing back woodstands. The Indians in this portion of the Colony had, as early as 1643, put themselves under the protection of the General Court, and had the assurance that they should enjoy the lands in their actual possession, and be protected in their rights. The Indians at Marlborough were a branch of the Natick and Wamesit tribes, whose principal possession was upon the Merrimack, near its confluence with the Sudbury or Concord River—the site of the present city of Lowell. Their settlement at Marlborough was commenced early, probably before the English landed at Charlestown, or the Massachusetts Colony was organized. Their " Planting Field " on the hill near the old Meeting-House Common, appears to have been cultivated for a considerable period before the English settlement was made ; for the English, on taking possession of their grant, found not only Indian corn-fields, but Indian apple orchards, in a bearing state, on the neighboring hill. 1674 Indian Grantors The planting field “Okookanganset” was bounded on the east by Whipsuppenike, a hill where Hosmer Street runs toady, on the south by what is now Main Street, extending to Rawlins Avenue and Highland Street and including Hudson to the Stow and Sudbury line. Sligo Hill, a western boundary, was known as Okookamansett. The land was recognized for its value by the English settlers as some of the best in the seventy two square miles in the plantation. They built their first houses in a semi-circle bordering the Indian fields which were rich in small streams and open meadowland. Their position was also advantageous due to its closeness to the Indian trails and Sudbury. The Indians and settlers lived in peace and amity from 1656 to 1675. When the settlers discovered their meeting house had been erected on a corner of the Indian planting ground (where the Old High School/Walker Building stands today), Chief Onamog, “The Wolf Captain”, readily deeded to them the land on which it stood and a right of way. The various individuals of the tribe are known to us only dimly though the ten names signed to the deed drawn up in 1674 giving the land to Daniel Gookin, the Indian Commissioner. The list of grantors reads: # Old Nequenit # Robin (for whom Robin Hill get its name) # Benjamin Wuttanamitt # James, called Great James # John Nasquamit # Mary, the widow of Peter Naskonit, in behalf of her child Moses David Assoaske, the widow of Josiah Nowell, “in behalf of my children” Sarah Conomoy, sole executrixe to my late husband Oonomog Elisabeth, the only daughter and heir of Solomon, deceased (for whom Solomon’s Pond gets its name) # James Speene, in behalf of his wife 1675 King Philip's War The praying indians of Marlborough were unjustly accused of participation in the Lancaster massacres of 1675,1676. * Lancaster Massacre 1686 Land Disputes In about 1686, many residents of Marlborough signed several key legal agreements to contract the transfer of title of large piece of indian land known as the Indian Plantation to the townsfolk. Ten Indians also signed it. References * History of the Town of Marlborough... - by Charles Hudson, pub 1862. - Chapter 2 - Indian Plantation Category:Marlborough, Massachusetts